Many of the states and municipalities that annually receive millions of federal dollars to deal with criminal illegal aliens violate the law by releasing repeat offenders – up to six times – and refusing to document immigration status because they are self-described sanctuaries.

An audit conducted by the United States Department of Justice Inspector General discovered how many of the 752 states that received $287.1 million in federal funds under the State Criminal Assistance Program did not follow rules which require full cooperation between recipients and federal immigration officials.

In numerous cases, county and city law enforcement agencies released offenders with existing criminal histories – including serious weapons and drug charges – who had been previously arrested without notifying the Department of Homeland Security to begin deportation proceedings.

Among the more scandalous revelations in the audit’s 109-page report are the two self-described immigrant sanctuaries that received a combined $4.5 million in federal funds to specifically deal with criminal illegal aliens. Oregon got $3.4 million yet the entire state is a sanctuary that refuses to identify illegal aliens and seldom cooperates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. The famously liberal northern California city of San Francisco got $1.1 million even though ICE agents crowned it the least cooperative.

The lengthy report includes graphs and charts that break down where the taxpayer dollars are going and features the result of a survey of local law enforcement agencies that exposes how many forbid asking about a suspects’ immigration status and others do not alert ICE prior to releasing a detained undocumented criminal alien.

Judicial Watch has sued two large police departments – Los Angeles and Chicago– for their illegal alien sanctuary policies. In Los Angeles, Special Order 40 prohibits police officers from inquiring about an individual’s immigration status and in Chicago a widespread policy prevents all county employees from assisting with immigration enforcement and/or reporting suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities.